To further optimize payment services for customer groups such as the elderly and foreign visitors, eight high-quality service areas for convenient payment were officially opened on the 11th, including Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport and Yiwu International Trade City. These service areas will focus on scenarios such as dining, accommodation, transportation, travel, and shopping to offer more convenient payment methods such as bank card, cash, and mobile payment.

In recent years, the rapid development of mobile payments has improved transaction efficiency and reduced transaction costs. However, in real life, the elderly population prefers cash payments, and many foreign visitors are also unaccustomed to the mobile payments. To solve this, in March of this year, the General Office of the State Council issued the "Opinions on Further Optimizing Payment Services and Improving Payment Convenience", proposing six key tasks.

The newly opened high-quality service areas cover four airports in Hangzhou, Ningbo, Wenzhou, and Yiwu, as well as four inbound tourist areas including Hangzhou Hubin Business District, Shaoxing China Textile City, Yiwu International Trade City, and Zhoushan Putuo Mountain Scenic Area. Taking advantages of bank branches, service centers, and electronic guide screens, consumers can enjoy one-stop payment services such as foreign currency exchange and consultation guidance, with complete functions and services.

The reporter learned that Zhejiang is currently launching a payment facilitation project, and has established five payment service systems in foreign card acceptance, foreign currency exchange, cash payment, mobile payment and digital RMB. As of now, the updating rates of ATMs with key merchants and in key areas have reached 99.4% and 98.4%, respectively; More than 5400 bank branches have opened foreign currency exchange services, and 312 key hotels have set up foreign currency exchange desks.